D&D 5E What would i do to convert the Pathfinder Aegis to 5e?

[BRKNdevil]

I was reading this
http://www.d20pfsrd.com/psionics-unleashed/classes/aegis
and remembered this
http://marvel.com/universe/Armor_(Hisako_Ichiki)

and thought it looked interesting. and i was wondering how i would go about converting it to 5e
I was thinking a power point progression at 1/2 found in the DMG page 289 but the customization ideas would be slow to implement with most players since they would keep on "forgetting" on what they customized their suits customization options. I was thinking something like the warlocks invocations on that part.
then comes in the conversion of the different abilities it gains into 5e and the class archetypes. I don't think having the 3 different modes would be a sufficiently good idea for the class archetypes but perhaps that is the way to go.

I'm wondering what everyone else's input on this is.

 

[I'm A Banana]

Hurm dee durm.

The main thing to thread with this conversion is going to be intent. What is it about the aegis that seems like fun / is something you want to preserve?

The main difficulty I can see is that the astral suit customizations just don't have much of a 5e equivalent. Always-on buffs are not in the realm of player abilities, and the magic items that many of those abilities mimic are not in the realm of player control. Additionally, most 5e classes have bigger, more definitive choices, and less granular detail.

The most "native" way to do this is probably to look at classes that don't have spell slots and mimic what they can do. Barbarians, monks, rogues, fighters, etc. You could simply re-fluff a lot of things -- a Fighter's Defense fighting style becomes your Astral Suit improving its protection, for instance. You'd likely be able to get the same story as the aegis without having to muck about with the mechanics with a simple re-fluff job.

Honestly, were I to do this, I'd probably go with a Monk or a Barbarian (depending on if I wanted speed or brute power), and some mild refluffing. A "psionic exoskeleton" could be mimicked with unarmored defense, fast movement, and various ki point abilities well enough, and the Aegis is so flexible in terms of its abilities (and, thus, rather empty of distinctiveness in and of itself) that I wouldn't be too concerned about not hitting the right vibe.

More in-depth custom stuff is going to require a more cautious hand. Especially if you want to mimic the ability of the aegis to swap out their ability load-out with a night's rest, that's a level of flexibility that no character in 5e can easily achieve at this point. Even the wizard is limited to spells in a spellbook and a few spells known and needs to spend slots to power their abilities. Warlock invocations are not things that warlocks can change around with a night's sleep.

If all you want is the fluff, that's easy enough to do within current class structures and abilities. If what you're looking for is more mechanical, that might require drilling down to find what mechanics are really interesting to you, so that we can cut some of the (considerable) chaff from the class.

 

[BRKNdevil]

I was thinking of refluffing it so that the things chosen through the invocation limitations would be permanent functions, but the spell points from dmg would be used for on the fly customizations and powering the different invocation-like choices for the more powerful options such as flight and empowerment of weapons. I'd still keep it in line with spell concentration rules and such. but i understand why you said the things you said and understand not wanting to get it just right, but i think it would be more interesting for myself to try to convert it, even if i don't completely don't know how it can be done without gimping the character.

 

[I'm A Banana]

I was thinking of refluffing it so that the things chosen through the invocation limitations would be permanent functions, but the spell points from dmg would be used for on the fly customizations and powering the different invocation-like choices for the more powerful options such as flight and empowerment of weapons. I'd still keep it in line with spell concentration rules and such. but i understand why you said the things you said and understand not wanting to get it just right, but i think it would be more interesting for myself to try to convert it, even if i don't completely don't know how it can be done without gimping the character.

Yeah, go wild. Post it up to our homebrews forum and you'll get some feedback.

Permanent functions are definitely a better fit for 5e philosophically, and you can look to non-magical abilities to balance them, that'd be a good start. I might consider making the class a subclass of fighter / barbarian / monk, and lean on a lot of refluff.

Spell concentration is, I think, not the best fit for a class like the aegis, which seems to want to be a possible melee fighter. Rely on concentration there, and you'll be losing a lot of spells and slowing down the game significantly rolling concentration checks.

Just some things to keep in mind. Good luck!